Trouble for Levant Construction Company as Minister threatens to revoke Edo road contract
Minister of Works David Umahi threatened to revoke the multibillion Naira Benin-Sapele-Ologbo road construction project on Friday if the contractors, Levant Construction Company, fail to meet the work’s scope and specifications.
Mr Orji Uchenna Orji, Special Adviser to the Minister of Works on Media and Publicity, made this statement in a video clip made available to Platinum Times on Saturday.
The minister expressed unhappiness with the contractors’ work and directed the Ministry’s supervisory engineers to send a warning letter to the corporation on Monday, March 11, 2024.
He further stated that if the corporation fails to do the right thing after 14 days, he will personally terminate the deal.
Umahi, who was on an inspection tour of federal road construction in Edo State, declared that contractors in the country were playing politics with Nigerians and warned that such behavior would not be tolerated under his watch.
He said, “By Monday, give them a warning letter to start permanent work and if by Monday they didn’t start, give 14 days’ notice of termination.
“We paid multi-billion Naira for this job and we have seen that a lot of contractors in this country are just playing politics with us and we have emphasised this on several occasions.
“We will pay mobilisation fee to a contractor, we will never pay variation on price for that amount we have paid and that is the problem with Levant. After 14 days of notice of termination, if they don’t adhere to the terms of the contract, I will come and terminate the job myself.
“You cannot do this kind of job in your country, it can only happen in Africa. You can’t collect our money and be misbehaving like this. It is a big shame, look at how people are suffering everywhere and we should be happy clapping for you.
“I have had more than 10 meetings with them on this job. If anything goes wrong they will call the President,” he added.
The minister continued with the inspection of the Benin, Ekpoma, Auchi and Abuja Expressway.